Unity
by Kinryuu
Summary: As the destinies mend rifts in time, men and gods alike etch their fates anew. All the same, four souls long for each other to find fulfillment once again.


**Author's notes:**

Well, I thought I might try myself at this writing thingy. English is not my mother tongue and I lack a native beta-reader, so please excuse minor (major?) spelling a grammar mistakes.

I chose Valkyrie Profile 2 as a basis for my first work because I just loved the game and its characters. I think there are many unresolved interpersonal conflics worth inspecting, as well as the question what happened to the three Valkyries at the end of the game.

As for the following story, I will probably stray a bit from what most people consider the canon pairings, but please bear with me, for in my opinion the game itself leaves a lot of playroom in this regard. I promise there shouldn't be any illogical or outrageously obscure pairings (within the boundaries of the game and my story, of course). I don't want to spoil too much, but if you are not comfortable with romantic relationships between two females (aka yuri goodness), you probably should stop reading right here.

Oh, and don't be confused by the names. I played the Japanese version, so many names might differ. The most notable changes throughout the story will probably be Fray and Ahly, who are respectively named Freya and Hrist in the English version.

Disclaimer: I don't own Valkyrie Profile or any related franchise. Because if I did, "Valkyrie Profile 3: Ahly" would have already been anounced for the PS3.

_Story synopsis:_ As the destinies mend rifts in time, men and gods alike etch their fates anew. All the same, four souls long for each other to find fulfillment once again.

* * *

_**Unity**_

_A Valkyrie Profile 2 Fanfiction_

_Chapter 0: Prelude to Destiny_

To Rufus, the wide, glorious halls of Valhalla always seemed somewhat lonely, though he couldn't really place why. While it was true that they were just ridiculously huge, if you considered how many people, Aesir and Einherjar alike, were actually living there, you rarely wandered around for a longer time without seeing some at least vaguely known faces.

One of those faces was currently standing – or rather floating – along at his side as he made his way to the fields outside to perform his daily inspections on the training of his army of Einherjar.

„My_ army, huh?"_ Rufus thought to himself.

He still sometimes had problems coming to terms with the fact, that _he_ himself was now the supreme god gouverning the divine realm of Asgard. Though the first steps had been simple enough...

„_Take Gungnir, walk up Yggdrasil again, become a god...and then what?"_ He let out an inaudible sigh as not to arouse the suspicion of the green-clad goddess at his side; she didn't like it when he was brooding, especially during their daily excursions. Something about maintaining his dignity as a ruler and upholding the divine standards, as she liked to put it. Rufus had to willfully stop himself from grinning and shaking his head.

Their first_ real _meeting had been less than pleasant.

_

* * *

Rufus had just returned from the tops of Yggdrasil. With Gungnir in his hand he was making his way towards Valhalla's throne room, gods left and right bowing their heads in recognition of their new overlord. Truth be told, Rufus wasn't nearly half as confident as his stride would have made other people believe; steps forcefull, eyes straight, his face a stone mask of self-assuredness. However at the inside he was shaking, fearing that someone would look through his act of playing strong, that someone might notice that his aura of his newly found powers combined with those of his now rightfull weapon were flaring as impressively as it was simply because he wasn't able to control it. He probably wouldn't have stood a chance if one or more of them had decided to attack him._

_Finally he had reached the throne room. He could feel the eyes of the other gods which had been following him burning holes into his back as he ascended the stairs to what had previously been Odin's throne. He stood there for a moment, glancing over the seat which should from now on belong to him, focusing his mind and strength on what he was about to do._

_In what could have been called an overly dramatic gesture, he turned around, Gungnir firmly gripped in his right hand, his cape flattering behind him as it failed to keep up with the sudden movement. Having completed the half circle turn, he waited for his cape to settle and looked at the silent crowd before him. The tension was so thick you could have cut it with a knife; the gods stared up at him expectantly; there was not a single sound to be heard._

_The suspension was unbearable, for all of them._

_After a long agonizing moment, Rufus finally forcefully brought one end of Gungnir to the floor. A dull metallic sound of terrible loudness then pierced the silence, and Rufus mentally grinned at the sight of several gods visibly flinching and covering. He then angled his free left arm, which had up to now been hanging limply at his side, to his chest, before streching it out in front of him in a quick move, hand stretched wide open with the palm facing the floor. The movement made his cape flare out yet again. However, this time he didn't wait for it to settle down, but instead begun he proclamation. His voice rung out firmly, clearly and without any doubts, his face was stern and confident._

„_Aesir and Einherjar of Asgard, hear the voice of your new souvereign! From this day on, I, Rufus, shall reign this realm. Let it be known that Odin has perished and his rule over this world has come to an end. Now leave and spread the word!" Rufus then once again let the sound of Gungnir ring through the halls for good measure and demonstratively sat down on the throne._

_And the crowd bowed and accepted their new ruler without protest._

_After the other gods had left and the large door to the throne room had closed Rufus closed his eyes and waited for the last remaining spectator to come out from behind one of the pillars. Fray looked very unsteady on her feet. The fact that she was walking instead of floating only added emphasis to her already shaken demeanor._

„_Lord Odin...is gone?" Her voice audibly broke down at the end. Rufus let out a sigh._

„_He died along with Lezard Valeth in his newly created world. But his soul was probably gone the moment Lezard fused it with his own."_

_Almost wincing at how unintendedly harsh he had sounded, he then turned his head and looked at Fray. She was looking to the ground but even from the distance he was able to see her body shaking, though if it was from anger or grief he couldn't tell. He let out another sigh._

„_Look, I know this is hard for you, but I will need your support to pull this off."_

_He knew that there was no way that she hadn't seen through his whole act, so putting his cards on the table was no loss to him. However he also knew that he wouldn't get any favourable reaction out of the goddess before him any time soon. And indeed Fray looked up to him in one swift motion with fists clenched at her side, her eyes burning with anger and frustration, and after holding out against his wordless yet demanding stare for some time, she wordlessly teleported out of the throne room._

„Give her some time_", he told himself and allowed himself to visibly relax his body into the rather comfortable throne. Yet another sigh. He was relieved that his coup had gone as smoothly as it had and was now trying to loosen his remaining tension. Still sitting on the magnificent throne he stretched his extremities and let out a satisfied grunt._

„Now, what to do next..."

_And then he had to realize that he had no idea how to go about that whole supreme god business at all._

* * *

„_Well, I guess it turned out fine somehow_", Rufus thought to himself as he, having reached the Einherjars' training grounds, strolled through the ranks of warriors honing their skills in battle. He allowed himself a sidelook at Fray, who was still floating besides him and ever-dutyfully inspecting each and every Einherjar they passed with examining eyes. She was currently looking away from him, so Rufus' looks went unnoticed. 

„_Now if only she'd loosen up a bit more_", Rufus thought wistfully. And while it was true that Fray worked him almost to death – he didn't really expect her do anything less – it was still no comparision to the state their relationship had been in shortly after his „enthronement" about 20 years ago. She had (grudingly) agreed to support him, but all the while taken out her anger and frustration on him. At least that was how it had felt to him. But still he hadn't complained...much.

„_Can't really blame her..._"

Over time her temper has cooled to the point that they were now comfortably working together to keep Asgard going in relative harmony. A lot of gods still didn't agree with some of his views, but he hadn't really expected that he could just stomp in and demand an immediate paradigm shift in the minds of each and every god under his rule. And Fray was no exception.

Rufus lazily let his eyes stroll across the battlefield again without really paying attention to the actual fights. They had almost completed their round and were now on the way back to the halls of Valhalla.

„_Well, at least up here the ruler doesn't have to do any paperwork like they do down there in Midgard. I guess that's a plus._" Before he could stop himself a small chuckle escaped his lips. Alarmed he hardened his face again, quickly straighted up his composure, and risked a small glance at Fray, who to his relieve was still looking the other way.

„_Close one..._" Rufus relaxed again.

„Lord Rufus, I believe you're not taking this seriously enough", Fray spoke up. There was no overhearing the annoyed edge in her voice.

Rufus visibly flinched and slowly turned his head to look a Fray, who was still looking away from him, and gave a small sheepish laugh. She always meant business when calling him with his full title, which was something he usually discouraged people from doing.

„Oh, come on, we're doing this every day. It's not like there's going to be any really important development out here from one time to the next." He knew that arguing wouldn't help him in anything but further angering the goddess.

But he always had to try.

„We're preparing for the end of the world here, how can you not take this seriously?!" By now Fray was facing him and he had to resist the urge to shrink away from her burning gaze.

„Of course, you're right," Rufus conceded. She usually was, but he'd never admit that to her. And because of that he couldn't stop himself from trying to have the last word: „But you have to agree that this daily routine is rather boring."

Her silence was probably the best assent he'd ever get from her.

They passed the gates to the halls of Valhalla.

And indeed, Fray didn't particularly enjoy watching the Einherjar hacking each other into pieces each and every day. But she knew better than to admit that, and after all their work was still important, for she couldn't let their leader appear as slack and easygoing – no matter how true that was. She sighed. However, this time she didn't argue back as she would usually do. She didn't want to foul her lord's mood today, for she had decided that this very day she would break one of the unspoken taboos between them and she wanted him to be at his best when that happened.

Despite her earlier resolve, Fray suddenly felt very nervous.

It didn't help that most of these taboos between them were of personal nature. The circumstances that had brought them together hadn't been pleasant for both of them, however they had needed to work together and thus there were unspoken promises between them that kept their relationship stable.

They passed another gate on their way back to the throne room in silence.

It wasn't that she particularly feared Rufus' anger - after all in the end he wasn't really someone to hold a grudge for long -, but she knew that this time she could permanently damage what little of a relationship they had, and for reasons she couldn't fathom this scared her a lot. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes, but vainly tried to stop her stomach from turning.

„My lord, there is something I need to discuss with you." She knew her voice wasn't as level as she had wanted it and mentally cursed her own weakness. It came out too meek, like that of a little girl trying to tell her parents that she had torn her new dress while trying to climb the tree she had explicitly been forbidden from climbing.

Of course this didn't go by unnoticed by Rufus, whose questioning glance sideways at her was visibly concerned. Visible to her, at least. During their years together they had picked up most of the other's little habits and gestures which usually went by unnoticed by outsiders. She doubted anyone but him would have noticed the slip in her voice, either. Thinking of that didn't help to make her task easier. She was now lagging behind him a bit. Taking his continued silence as her cue to continue she spoke up again in an uncharactaristically unsteady voice.

„I'm terribly sorry to bring this up, my lord," Rufus was surprised even more at her displayed submissiveness, he probably wouldn't like what was comming next, „but with all due respect, I believe that we...need more Einherjar to reinforce our troops in the long term."

Rufus appruptly stopped walking.

Fray halted, too, still about one step behind him. Before them loomed the final door to the throne room. It made no move to open yet.

It were moments like this that made her remember that all things considered Rufus _was_ the supreme god after all. Although she had become accustomed to his normally suffocating presence and to others their conversations often seemed as if she were in control around here, now floating closely behind the still silent souvereign she couldn't help but let herself be intimidated by his overwhelming aura of power. Was he angry? Was he disappointed? She knew that the events of the past still weighed heavily on his shoulders; by mutual understanding the both had always avoided touching matters that could even vaguely remind them of what had transpired. Until now. And she felt horribly ashamed for being the first to break their unspoken promise, no matter how dire the situation was. His continued silence didn't help to allivate her nervousness. Yet the only thing she could do was gaze at his back and wait for his final judgement. It felt as if she were waiting for her death sentence.

After a nerve-wrecking pause Rufus finally inclined his head towards her without turning the rest of his upper body. She couldn't see his eyes.

"I will...think about it." He straightened his view and started walking again.

The giant door before him opened.

"Thank you, my lord." The horrible neutrality of his voice had left her own shaking. She would have welcomed any emotion, be it anger, sadness or fury, but that cruel levelness along with his unreadable aura had kept her hanging in her insecurity. She looked down at the floor before her like a scolded little girl accepting her punishment.

"This will be all for today, Fray." His firm voice left no room for arguments.

"Yes, my lord." She responded meekly with her head still bowed.

The giant door between them closed.

* * *

**Post-production notes:**

Well, this went better than I though it would. I'm still very inexperienced when it comes to creative writing, so there are a lot of rough edges here and there. Originally I had written the whole flashback like passage in past perfect, which I realized to be kinda less handy in English than in German.

In the next chapter we will hopefully get a bit closer to the actual storyline. I'm moving next sunday, so I don't know if I'll get around to updating within the next two weeks.

Many thanks go to my beta-reader and dear friend LostTemplar, who unfortunately I won't be seeing for a year.

As this is the first time I've ever tried writing fanfiction, please take some of your time to leave a comment about what you liked and disliked.


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